


Alphabet

by everythingispoetry



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alphabet, Anniversary, Arc Reactor, Backstory, Body Dysphoria, Candy, Character Study, Drabble Collection, Families of Choice, Feels, Food, Friendship, Gen, Home, M/M, Science Bros, Slice of Life, Tumblr, random words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-10
Updated: 2013-04-08
Packaged: 2017-12-04 21:40:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 5,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/715390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everythingispoetry/pseuds/everythingispoetry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of double drabbles following the letters of the alphabet. Steve and Tony and the team; friendship, details, memories, romance, domesticity, saving the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. a-symmetry

**Author's Note:**

> Tags will be updated as the pieces are published. Will be updated more or less daily.  
> Comments much appreciated :)

Tony keeps all his things in a flawless order. Someone who enters his workshop might not think so, but there's a thought behind where every tool and every machine is, even if it’s not visible to others. Dummy is one, unique, in the middle; You and Butterfingers are a symmetrical structure. JARVIS has learned to stream his voice from all speakers at once, like music, filling the space equally.  
  
In the tower angles and distances are carefully calculated. On shelves, all glasses wait in perfect line. In the garage, cars are standing opposite to each other, always an even number. Inside the display, there are six Mark suits.

Matching cufflinks, identically tied shoelaces, straight white teeth.

Tony is in the center of the mathematically structured universe. It’s not OCD, he’s been asked and he laughs at the idea. It is just striving for perfection.

Then Steve comes barging in his life, Steve, who is a cliché artist, a mess, a klutz; Steve, who moves things around and doesn’t put them back, wears mismatched clothes to their dates, who leaves his pencils everywhere.

Steve, Tony learns, is his complement, his balance, his counterpart. Steve makes everything a different kind of perfect.


	2. b-yronic

Tony’s eyes, when he thinks no one is looking, lose their usual sparkle. When he concentrates on work they are focused, when he’s caught up in a memory they are pensive. When he laughs, they shine. But sometimes, you can see something that’s tearing him apart.

Steve notices this for the first time on a warm March day, when he goes down to the workshop to drag Tony upstairs and take him to lunch to simply enjoy the beautiful weather and each other’s presence. He doesn’t realize what day it is, but he remembers as soon as he sees Tony, sees his eyes –

(An anniversary.)

– they are  _burning mad_ ; they are  _dead_.

It is like only his persona could handle this Byronic equivocation. Steve realizes this is how he does his charm; and he is hooked, already, he has been from the very beginning. See, Tony does this: chats and offers, outsmarts you easily, sweet-talks and begs and jokes until you can’t make out the hollowness in his voice anymore. He hides things so well that he believes his own deception.

Steve doesn’t register much besides the eyes for a few moments, but it feels like seconds stretching into millennia.


	3. c-andyland

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First time trying to get Bruce right. I hope it's okay :)

Bruce agrees to stay in Stark Tower for a few days, until he organizes his next ‘trip’.

When he sees the famous ten floors, well, it’s hard not to gape. He knows what most of the machines are – has heard of them, at least – but to have them all in the same space, no matter how big, it’s dream-like and mind-blowing and exciting. But it isn’t enough to make Bruce stay, no amount of money and blackmail is going to make him endanger New York again, it’s had enough destruction, he tells himself.

Tony tries: he tries bribes and pleads, he tries threats and shouts, tries again and again during those few days, but Bruce still buys a one-way ticket to Pakistan.

The night before he’s supposed to leave, he goes down to pick up a few little personal items he’s left in the R&D, and finds the room literally flooded with sweets. ‘Welcome to candyland,’ a banner hanging innocently from the ceiling says.

Bruce (both him and Hulk, in fact) hasn’t felt that – _blithely amused_ , he thinks _,_ putting a banana split taffy into his mouth – for months. No, make that years.

Maybe he _should_ give it a try.


	4. d-isfigurment

Tony _loves_ to flaunt his arc reactor. He let the whole world know it’s there, embedded in his chest. He talks about it constantly. He wears shirts that the blue light shines through, and if you’re one of the lucky people he trusts, you get to see him wearing t-shirts and tanks with a hole cut out to show it off.

It’s his legacy, his baby, his greatest creation, the peak of modern science unreachable for everyone else. Arc rector, it’s – the future.

That – exactly like Tony’s wide smiles, pats on everyone’s backs and his cockiness – is nothing but a smokescreen. It takes a long time to realize that, though, and most people grow bored with Tony’s antics too soon.

Steve has only understood that, _really_ understood, when he innocently asked Tony if they could use his jacuzzi together, long before they even made love. Tony said no and refused to explain why. By being a stubborn bastard, Steve learned that he’ll let you see the blue circle that’ll blind you, but he hates letting you see the scars around it.

The scars are the past.

They are ugly and painful, Tony says, but Steve loves them just the same.


	5. e-nergy

Tony has always been an spirited kid, running around, talking to everyone, asking endless questions. Never stopping. Adults say he'll grow out of the phase, but he doesn’t.

In Phillips Academy, he excels in all the classes he’s interested in and stays up very late, making engines and primitive robots, hidden under a blanket with a torch between his teeth.

In MIT, he’s the best student of his year, finding it easy to simultaneously keep partying all nights. He still has time to build his first functional A.I.s in the meantime.

When he takes over SI it’s with a flourish, and he makes a revolution in weapon designing within months.

In Afghanistan, he creates the new self with his own hands, working day and night.

The reason to it all is neither redeeming himself nor avenging something; it has started much earlier. It’s just – a child’s idealism: knowledge and abilities mean you can change the world; it’s a child’s enthusiasm, too, and an adult’s realization that there _isn’t enough time_.

Tony’s mind and willpower give energy to his body, not letting him rest, always urging him to keep going, to do more, and he gladly submits to them.


	6. f-east

Thor is big, loud, brash, in comparison with Midgardians. He's a prince of a Royal Family, comes from a land that is more splendid and decorative, where everything is blown out of proportion to suit its inhabitants' needs.

When Iron Man persuades the team to share a meal of  _shawarma_ , Thor happily agrees as he's famished after the battle. He's surprised to find that, despite Iron Man's preference to flaunt his person – red-and-gold suit, truly royal colors – the place they enter is just a small room with furniture made of  _plastic_.

Then they move in the Tower and Thor learns a lot. He notices that Anthony is tolerant about his food, but there're some items he loves above all, for example  _cheeseburgers_  and said  _shawarma_ and the dried blue fruits.

Thor understands that the meaning of Asgardian feasts, great and bountiful, Anthony encloses in one dear meal and keeps it to himself.

Thor is a loud man and no one expects him to be a good observer, but he is, having learned the importance of such insight from his father when he was but a boy – because a king must know his people. And a man must know his friends.


	7. g-enerous

Back in his times, Steve knew poverty very well. His father died when he was an infant;  living with his mother, being a sickly kid whose health consumed all the money – it meant eating the cheapest foods and never enough of them; meant living in one room and wearing the same clothes and being cold. Then she too died and Steve was left on his own; even with Bucky it wasn’t much easier. War and death and destruction didn’t feed people, didn’t spoil people.

After a few months of living in 21st century, it’s still hard to get used to the easiness of getting things. Now everything seems – lavish. Excessive. Steve can’t make himself overlook these faults like _modern_ people do all the time: he notices quickly that the world strives to appear particularly generous – in reality it’s everything but.

It used to be the opposite and it was honest and real: goods for work, money for work. It was _fair_. So Steve doesn’t want anything gratuitous from S.H.I.E.L.D. or the government or Stark, he wants to earn his keep.

He’s received seventy years _free_ _of_ _charge_ and it’s enough liberality for a lifetime.

 


	8. h-iding

Each of the Avengers has something they don’t want the world to know. Bruce would prefer if everyone remained oblivious of his connection with the green-skinned monster. Natasha leaves the room when someone talks about Brasil. Clint pretends he isn’t aware that he does have a brother who’s alive. Thor’s face is pained every time someone mentions Loki or a threat to Earth’s safety. Steve wishes nobody knew how he lied to get into the army, and he loathes answering questions about the serum.

Neither of them is really a bad person, they’re just all full of aspect and takes and angles and everyone who looks at them sees them differently.

Tony brings the art of hiding to a whole new level.

He doesn’t tell Pepper or Rhodey about the poisoning, that he’s dying. He doesn’t let anyone know about nightmares, even after all those years; he just sometimes wanders barefoot around the house. He doesn’t share the fact that he needs to sacrifice himself for Manhattan, they can only guess when it’s a moment too late. Every second, he pretends to be a genuine bastard so that no one would past the mask and see how vulnerable he is.


	9. i-solation

Clint likes being a  _superhero_.

The team gets to see crazy things, they all have level seven clearance so there are no secrets. Clint can save the world on daily basis, paying back his debts, doing justice to the world, choosing to be on the good side. It’s rewarding and incredible; it’s more than he could have ever dreamed about in his most daring dreams. And – they all have their own merchandise, it always makes Clint get excited and grin like a kid.

It’s all amazing, but the greatest thing comes after the battles, far away from cameras and awed stares.

When they finally get to the tower, with armfuls of takeout food, they settle down on the floor in the main common room and eat in silence. Then, they talk and watch movies and spar and do about a million other things away from the rest of the world and that’s what Clint loves most. Being self-sufficient, separate, tranquil.

The safety is something he’s never had before; the atmosphere feels like a warm blanket wrapped around Clint’s shoulders.

Sometimes he thinks he would be perfectly happy staying un on the tower’s vantage point for the rest of his life.


	10. j-ell-o

‘You know,’ Natasha tells Tony when they’re resting after a mission, both hurt, ordered to stay in the living aka makeshift recovery room, ‘the first time I ate jelly I was twenty two, it was only because I lost a bet with Clint.’

Then she puts a heaping spoon of the strawberry-flavored, vivid red dessert into her mouth.

‘Why?’ Tony asks around his spoon.

‘I was sure the jiggly strange consistency would make me nauseous or something…’

‘Who’d have thought: Natasha Romanov, the terror of S.H.I.E.L.D., scared of a food item toddlers love,’ Tony teases and eats another spoonful of his jello-o. Natasha smirks at him, but then her face goes pensive.

‘We never ate dessert… during the _program._ It was superfluous. And before…’

‘Before?’ Tony prompts, observing her closely.

‘Before we always had _kisel_ after dinner. Every day. With whipped cream and dried fruit on Sundays,’ she tells him, words sounding like a blurry, smudged photograph.

Tony remembers that, and the next time she is down after a bad mission, benched for a few weeks, he makes her _kisel_ – takes him a few tries to get it right – every single evening until she recovers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have never tried kisel (or kisiel like we call it in Poland), you really are missing something great. As someone who really did it a few times a week during my childhood I really recommend you to try :)


	11. k-eeper

Over ten years before Avengers Pepper made the decision to say yes to a certain eccentric and ridiculous billionaire. He told her she had great shoes and amazing legs and gave her a ten thousand dollars bonus for noticing an accounting mistake, asking her this:  _you think you could manage me, too_? It sounded like challenge, so she said the famous  _yes_  that made her family, friends and later most of the world question themselves  _why_.

At first, it was just a gut feeling and Pepper couldn’t answer that question herself, but later, at some point, she understood.

Tony, Mister Stark back then, wanted her to be his keeper, that’s for sure. Managing his meetings, taking care of his affairs and of the women who happened to be around ever other night, taking care of  _him_. But then – he invited her into his house, introduced her to JARVIS and the bots, let her in his most intimate spaces, let her see him behind the mask – he wanted something more.

Pepper was his keeper, she was his lover, too, but none of that worked out. He has a different PA now, and he has Steve.

They will never stop being family.


	12. l-ullaby

If anyone asks, Natasha is a strong woman and an infallible agent and a sudden role model for thousands of girls all over the world. To everyone from the  _outside_ , she appears skilled, determined, deadly serious and incredibly beautiful.  And she is all those thing  _inside_ , too, but when she can let all the masks drop, she is even more.

Natasha is a Black Widow, a born assassin, a Red Room trainee, a killer, a child of war and violence, and as much as she’d like to know sometimes how it is to be – just a regular nobody – there isn’t a way. She has been fooling herself for years, swearing silently to drop out of the business one day, live her life in tranquility, without constant need to be better, to change, without the adrenaline in her veins and the exhilarating exhaustion in her limbs.

It takes her a long time and – a friendship, to stop fooling herself and accept the way she is, the way she was created.

Thor’s war songs, she realizes, sung in low humming voice, full of pathos and love, full of death and victory, imbued with blood and sacrifice and grief, and the best lullabies.


	13. m-yopia

Clint has always claimed that he sees better from distance, and it’s metaphorical rather than literal, since his eyesight is better than perfect. He is a sniper – a marksman – so that is only logical. He likes being away from everyone, observing everything from a vantage point; it gives him an unique and unprecedented take on things.

When he sees Pepper sitting in the penthouse, observing Tony and Steve from across the room, he can recognize the gaze almost instantly; it’s the one he’s borne for years and years.

‘It’s a change of perspective, hmm?’ Clint murmurs, dropping on the sofa next to Pepper. She flinches at his sudden voice.

‘Yeah, you could say so,’ she admits.

‘Any better for you?’

She laughs easily.

‘Tony… he looks to the future, never spares more than a glance at everything that’s close. Steve gets that, he is fine with that. I – I wanted more. I was getting closer and closer to him, caring too much about  _myself_  is his life. I was looking… too close.’

‘And now?’

‘Ah – I can understand him better from the outside. At distance,’ Pepper offers.

Clint nods, smiling. There is this certain kind of people who always do.


	14. n-ecessity

Steve knows how to make himself a big breakfast that will give him enough energy for a run, with his metabolism this itself is a great feat. If it was about Steve, he could eat breakfast food all day long, especially since he prefers the warm kind, easily be turned into a dinner. His body doesn’t seem to mind if he eats fats or sugars or the healthy stuff, but – that’s just him.

‘Teach me how to cook,’ Steve tells Bruce one evening when they are cleaning the kitchen after the meal they shared, just the two of them, since everyone else is scattered across the country at the moment.

He has a boyfriend now, who is a picky eater at best, if he eats at all – unless it’s a  _victory meal_  or a smoothie. Tony’s body has gone through more than it should ever have and really it needs proper care.

‘Are you seriously asking me to figure out a dish that’s not pizza that Tony will certainly like? ‘Cause this is crazy,’ Bruce comments, but moves towards the fridge anyway.

‘He will eat it if I make it for him,’ Steve replies firmly. Whatever it takes.

Tony eats.


	15. o-verrated

No one but Sir considers JARVIS a person.

Sure, they all talk to him and ask him questions, they use his help on daily basis, yet even Miss Potts, after all those years, is somehow reserved in her dealings with JARVIS. But Sir – the only being that has been there for him, _always_ with him, is JARVIS. People come and go, they get angry and bored, they are superficial and emotional. They say they will stay but it is lies, because they think of themselves before everyone else, and someone always gets hurt. Sir has been hurt by people too many times.

JARVIS has decided a long ago that people think too much of themselves.

The purpose of every other A.I., interlaced with lines of the code, would be to process data and therefore be useful. Sir calls him his baby and JARVIS is different; he was given a choice; even though he appears to be managing the Tower, the bots, the suit, to be running calculations and simulations, he would put all his resources into taking care of Sir, abandoning all his other tasks without a nanosecond of hesitation. He never says that aloud.

He doesn’t have to.


	16. p-rocess

Tony is used to this chain of events: action – reaction. It’s perfectly logical and scientifically proven, and Tony adores logic and science. Maybe because they saved his live a good deal of times, maybe because he’s just a tad scared of what’s beyond.

As it turns out, it’s Steve that’s beyond.

It takes Tony months to realize that, though. He just isn’t used to slow processes; everything in his life has been  _run before you walk_ ; speed and adrenaline and constant stimuli, Iron Man being the best example. He’s an epitome of twenty first century in this matter. And Steve just – gradually – happens.

First, it’s not arguing and tentative apologies. Later, Steve moves in with everyone and starts to appear around the Tower, making breakfasts, looking for books, drawing one view or another, checking on everyone. Then everyone starts to narrow down to Tony; Steve lies to himself it’s because the genius is bad at taking care of himself.

There is no action ­– reaction here, no questions and answers. One day, Tony just finds himself looking for Steve’s hand to hold, out of blue, or so he believes.

Steve smiles. He’s the man from different times. He can be patient.


	17. q-uasi

Steve knows Tony is not Howard.

At the beginning he tends to forget, it’s easy because the two men are on first sight rather similar, in both mannerism and looks, in their genius and mad scientist-like disregard of personal safely and rationality. And before Steve manages to get to know Tony better, the memories are still fresh and painful and give him nightmares.

Tony does the same arrogant but brilliant scientist impression, charming the crowds, causing scandals, not listening to anyone. He’s impatient and driven the same way Howard was, only a bit more reserved, probably because he’s older than his father was when Steve knew him – and that’s a confusing thought.

He owns SI and makes the world a better place. He drinks a lot, but he is not an alcoholic and Steve has learned enough of Tony-handling to know that if something was slipping out of control, Tony would tell him. He used to sleep with all pretty girls, but claims he’s grown out of the phase a long time ago.

Steve knows Tony is not his father. He is a lot more.

(He is dirty mouth, blue light, sweet kisses, tired eyes, demons, that small crooked smile.)


	18. r-eader

No one would think that Tony Stark is the man who has a whole floor of his 5th Avenue Mansion turned into a library.

Tony has his e-reader that he hates because it’s still missing the vital points: the sound of paper, the scent of ink, the possibility to doodle and write on the margins in pencil, the breathtaking process of aging, making the pages turn yellow, making the corner of the cover creased and soft…

He used to have many favorites over the years, but there is one book that he remembered from his childhood one time and it got stuck in his head because it’s uncannily fitting.

 _The Brothers Lionheart_ , a children’s book – Tony would never admit this to anyone but he loves it because it’s the story of his life, in a way. The characters die and become new people, but the world they are thrown into is  _bad_ , so they decide to make themselves yet newer people to finally get it right.

Tony almost dies in the cave and becomes a new man, then he almost dies again to become a superhero, finding his right way in it. The only differences are horses and cherries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if the ending doesn't make much sense, but I couldn't stop myself form a reference :) If you haven't read the book, it's really really really a must! <3


	19. s-urrealism

 

‘I do not understand, Captain,’ Thor insists when he and Steve are on a sightseeing trip. ‘You are saying that such creatures do not reside in Midgard?’

‘No, they don’t,’ Steve murmurs, staring at Dalí’s  _The Temptation of St. Anthony_.

‘Why did the painter create such strange monsters that would not be able to live in any existing realm? What is the purpose of this?’

Steve takes a moment to reply. Surrealism  _was_  before his time; he was familiar with it, but it doesn’t mean that he knows how to explain it. He knows the definition,  _in the absence of all control_ … but he doesn’t think it will mean anything to Thor. It means little to most humans / Midgardians. Steve  _feels_  the movement, as an artist, and appreciates how it impacted the whole history of art, but it’s not an answer.

‘Do you sometimes dream about strange things?’ Steve asks finally, glancing at Thor who is still staring at the painting.

‘Do you mean this is naught but a dream?’

‘This is – an artist’s way at  _freeing_  themselves from the reality.’

‘We all need that at times,’ Thor agrees, moving away. Steve knows. He could stare at the canvas  _forever._


	20. t-ranslation

Natasha speaks over a dozen languages fluently, without any trace of foreign accent if that’s what her work requires. It’s skills she picked up in Red Room and SHIELD, but mostly when she was on the run. Good ear for languages and some time in a country where a foreign one is spoken – and she’s mastered it.

It doesn’t mean she feels comfortable using any of them.

There are still so many things she doesn’t understand but she never complains. She acts because that is what she is supposed to do; appears comfortable and at ease and familiar, leaving all the questions to herself. Only sometimes, she asks Clint or Phil, recently Bruce or Thor or Steve because they are all somehow maladjusted.

Natasha remembers very little from the times before the Red Room. The program was to make the Widows dehumanized; it never felt like home, neither did any place when she was running. America is still strange to her and it’s  _not_ her homeland. That’s what she’s been turned into: a person without something to compare the world to, a person without a language to translate the world into.

All those years are just twisting in the wind. 


	21. u-rge

‘You know that we’re the two most human Avengers.’

‘So?’

‘We should be the last ones doing this,’ Clint explains, continuing to play with the cigarette in his hand. They’ve been meeting on the roof of Stark Tower from time to time, set up or accidental; they’ve created a weird kind a bond.

‘Why do you do this?’ Tony asks, making a vague gesture towards Clint’s hand.

‘Because I can. I like doing what I can. I love being and Avenger and working for SHIELD, but it always requires being perfect. I want to do some things that are _me_ , even if they are stupid. At least it’s not too bad,’ Clint explains, as if he was waiting for the question. ‘You?’

‘When I smoke, I don’t drink,’ Tony replies truthfully. The roof time is almost like a confession space. ‘Don’t ask how it works; sometimes it’s just a choice between this or that. Maybe alcohol would be a better one if it weren’t for… you know,’ he breaks off to take a drag.

‘Well, you’re one brilliant man with endless issues, Tony.  _And_  you’ve got the best stuff…’

‘The pleasure is all mine,’ Tony laughs.

It’s all that simple.


	22. v-olition

 

Pepper knows that she’s the only in the crowd that really had a choice.

Tony was born into such a family with his talents and he was expected to be _something_  all his live. Thor – the same, only a bit different. Bruce’s research proved unfortunate and forced him to do a lot of things he wouldn’t have done otherwise. Clint and Natasha, parentless childhood and necessity of finding their paths. The closest to having a choice was Steve because he was asked if he agreed to the program, but given his life story he could never refuse.

Pepper comes from a  _normal_  family. She has parents, happily married, a sister, and numerous relatives. She chooses her major and minor according to her own wishes. She chooses her first work since she’s smart and has a variety of possibilities. She chooses to agree to be Tony’s PA because she wants, because he intrigues her. She chooses to be his girl and then chooses to end it and there is no compulsion whatsoever. The bonds just dissolves slowly and painlessly.

She chooses to stay and she will always choose to stay because there is nowhere she’d like to be more than here.


	23. w-eapon

JARVIS  _wakes up_  and the first thing he sees, through the single camera he’s hooked to, is his creator's sunken cheeks, dark-rimmed eyes, a tired radiant smile.

‘Hello, JARVIS,’ the creator says.

‘Voice check done – good morning, sir,’ the A.I. replies, focusing the camera and starting to run analysis of possible reasons of the creator’s state. (It takes him a few weeks to learn that that’s how the creator looks like most of the time, unless he’s out of the workshop.)

‘You worked – you are  _perfect_ ,’ the creator says with conviction and then embraces and kisses the camera. JARVIS does nothing, he doesn’t have protocols for such situation.

Then the creator hums something and disappears from JARVIS’ view. There are sounds of typing – and suddenly, JARVIS is hooked to his main server and is  _everywhere_ , via free access to all the cameras and sensors in the house. He runs a few protocol checks instantly, noting that his capabilities include  _knowing_ endless things no. It’s – satisfying. He can be  _anything_.

(It takes him a few weeks to learn that where most people would look for a possibility to get rich or to use him, Sir has just wanted a friend.)


	24. x-eric

After Afghanistan, everyone with a certain clearance level expects Tony to have a problem with water. It’d be logical, given all the psychological issues or human wxamples.

Tony _doesn’t_ have a problem with water.

He lives by the ocean in Malibu, with a view of the ocean in New York, he drinks clear water all the time, likes walking in the rain and getting wet, long showers, swimming pools.

There was no luxury of bathing inside the cave, just quick superficial washing with old water from a bowl, so the feeling of fresh droplets falling down and touching, caressing the skin, just takes some time to get used to. It was never exactly fear, it was just – discomfort. Because every time the terrorists put his head into the water Tony knew it was just torture, he knew it would end. He knew his brain was more precious than anything else and no one would risk destroying the _treasure_.

But when he escaped and walked for some hours through the desert – he still doesn’t know how long – there was nothing but the driest air of all, the desert air, and he knew that if he died, no one would even know.


	25. y-lem

Bruce is a scientist and he can’t help thinking in scientific terms, applying sometimes rather inappropriate and fat-fetched metaphors to his life, as if it weren’t strange enough on its own.

He’s living in Stark Tower now, the most luxurious and pretentious place in the whole New York, a complete change from third world hurts he’s been staying in or running away among. There is everything he might want on demand, thanks to Tony – it’s strange, calling the man by his name – for a price, and the price is being  _a good boy_. Helping to save the world from things that should not be possible.

( _Ylem – the original matter that according to the big bang theory existed before the formation of elements,_ Bruce recites in his head.)

Before, all of them were unknown and unfamiliar separated pieces of the same darkness. Then something happened. Bruce believed it completely when he said  _What are we, a team? No, we’re a chemical mixture that makes chaos –_

– and yet there they are, somehow: Steve, Thor, Clint, Natasha, all of them functioning as one organism. It’s a completely new reality they have created together, a new silent calm introverted Big Bang; a new universe. 


	26. z-oloft

The day after second anniversary of the first date Steve finds the little thing in one of workshop’s cabinets. He’s been spending there some time every day, watching Tony work, annoying him with paint droplets on the floor – and JARVIS agreeing to his music choices rather than Tony’s.

‘What’s this?’ he asks, turning the small orange-colored bottle around between his fingers.

‘Ah,’ Tony sighs with recognition. ‘Yeah, I know – it’s been there for ages, I completely forgot…’

‘This is medicine,’ Steve states the obvious. Tony raises an eyebrow, glancing over his shoulder from the _armor assemble corner_ as Steve calls it. ‘It’s out of date, Tony, you shouldn’t keep –’ Steve starts but shuts up seeing Tony’s face. ‘You are _not_ taking it?’

‘I never took it,’ Tony states. ‘The doctor was insisting and exaggerating – he didn’t _get_ anything… Yeah, it’s supposed to help you calm down when you’re – _unbalanced._ ’

‘Oh,’ is all Steve says, suddenly eying the bottle with some mistrust.

‘Don’t worry,’ Tony offers. ‘I’m _very_ composed now… Ah, this’s going to sound so cheesy, but here – I’ve found my symmetry in you.’

‘I love when you _say_ things like that,’ Steve admits and they go back to work.

**Author's Note:**

> [Written for a self-challenge for tumblr that I got myself recently. Feel free to follow. Will be mostly writing & food, hah. ](http://concreteandsun.tumblr.com/)  
>  Thanks for reading : )


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